NCAA Football Quiz: 1) Who am I? I hold Iowa State’s top
three single-game rushing marks, including a 378 yard effort,
and played from 1995-96. 2) Who am I? I starred at Kansas,
1968-70, rushing for 2,659 yards before heading to the NFL. 3)
Who was Kansas’ QB from 1966-68, later playing in the NFL?
4) Who was Kansas State’s QB, 1968-70, who also had a
lengthy career in the NFL? Answers below.
Finally….
The NFL heated up this weekend with the best regular season
match-up, this late in the season, ever. At least there had never
been two teams at least 7-0 playing each other, and the game
lived up to its billing. Advantage New England…advantage Tom
Brady. Knowing that they most likely lost the home field
advantage in a potential AFC championship game, Indianapolis
has to be very depressed today.
But then you had Minnesota rookie running back Adrian
Peterson, out of Oklahoma, run for an NFL record 296 yards
against San Diego; thus besting Jamal Lewis’ mark of 295.
Peterson, in just eight games, already has 1,036 yards and a 6.56
yard per carry average. He also is the first rookie to top 200
yards, twice.
In the same game, San Diego’s Antonio Cromartie set a record
with a 109-yard return of a missed field goal.
And back on 10/1 in this space I said Detroit, then 3-1, may be
playing a meaningful game on Thanksgiving, for once, and sure
enough, the Lions, now 6-2, will be playing 7-1 Green Bay on
Turkey Day. This is great for the sport.
Even New Orleans, after an 0-4 start, is now 4-4, another
potentially great story by season’s end.
But my Jets are 1-8. No one said life is a cakewalk.
Barry Bonds….
…on boycotting the Hall of Fame if it displays his record-
breaking home run ball with an asterisk.
“I won’t go. I won’t be part of it. You can call me, but I won’t
be there,” he said in an interview with MSNBC.
“I don’t think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball,
and I don’t think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk.
You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history.
You can’t do it. There’s no such thing as an asterisk in
baseball.”
Whatever you say, Barry. He also vowed not to talk to George
Mitchell’s staff looking into steroids while he is under
investigation in the BALCO case; something I can’t really
disagree with him on, to be fair. Barry did admit that the grand
jury investigating him ends in January. ‘Dear Lord, guide this
group of men and women to make the right call and indict him.’
College Football Review
OK, sports fans, this super, super season continues, though even
with Boston College’s loss, it’s finally settling down and any fan
of the sport has to want an Ohio State vs. LSU or Oregon title
game. Exciting players all around on all three teams, though as
much as I like watching Oregon, their uniforms are vile.
Speaking of vile, how about Nebraska?! Goodness gracious, it’s
embarrassing looking back to week two that Wake Forest lost to
them. Since then, Nebraska has given up 333 points in its last 8
contests on its way to an overall 4-6 record. As I go to post,
coach Bill Callahan hasn’t been hung in the town square, but it’s
getting close to this [and no, I’m not apologizing for the visual…
the citizenry, for good reason, is ready to do this.] I mean for
crying out loud, Nebraska gave up 76 points on Saturday to
Kansas! The worst effort in the history of the school!!! [You
know what was an interesting statistical quirk for Kansas? Only
one of their 11 TDs was over 14 yards.]
As for Wake, you know your program has officially turned the
corner when the fans take a loss hard, as is the case in our 17-16
setback on a last second field goal attempt to Virginia. Our
kicker, though, Sam Swank, is as good as any in the country and
is clearly NFL bound, but our coach showed way too much
confidence in just running two plays for position rather than try
to get Swank closer. If you missed it, we had a timeout left and
yet set up for a 47-yarder, that Swank proceeded to miss just
wide right. To treat a 47-yarder like a chip shot is absurd, but
otherwise Jim Grobe can’t do any wrong in my book so what the
heck. I’m proud of the kind of program he’s running at Wake.
[Before the Virginia game, Swank’s only miss this season in 12
attempts was a 57-yarder and in his career was 11 of 16 from 47
or longer. Last season, he hit three, 50-yarders in one game.]
Did you see that play by Navy’s Rand Vela near the end of the
Notre Dame game? Was that one of the best single defensive
efforts of all time? I can only remember Lawrence Taylor
making that kind of play, though Taylor did it at least once a
game in his prime. And congratulations to Navy for ending a 43-
year streak against the now pitiful Irish. Great, great stuff and
yet another reason why college football is the best sport on the
planet these days.
Back to Virginia, now 8-2, they set an NCAA single-season
record with five victories by two or less points.
Arkansas’ Darren McFadden, who had been having a mediocre
season vs. expectations after being the runner-up for the Heisman
in his sophomore year, ran for an SEC-record 323 yards as the
Razorbacks whipped up on South Carolina, 48-36. SC gave up
541 yards overall on the ground and coach Steve Spurrier said “a
Division III team could have slowed them down a little bit better
than we could.”
[McFadden also became the only SEC player aside from
Herschel Walker to rush for 1,000 yards as a freshman,
sophomore and junior.]
BCS
1. Ohio State, .995
2. LSU, .941
3. Oregon, .918
4. Kansas, .843
5. Oklahoma, .839
AP Top Ten
1. Ohio State…10-0…plays No. 12 Michigan 11/17
2. LSU…8-1
3. Oregon…8-1
4. Oklahoma…8-1
5. Kansas…9-0…doesn’t play Oklahoma…plays Mizzou 11/24*
6. West Virginia…7-1
7. Missouri…8-1
8. Boston College…8-1
9. Arizona State…8-1
10. Georgia…7-2
14. Hawaii…8-0**
16. UConn…8-1***
19. Boise State…8-1
*Kansas could play Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship, or
OK play Mizzou, thus muddling the BCS picture further.
**Hawaii simply can’t move up far enough to get in the BCS
hunt. It plays Boise State on 11/23, but BS has two pitiful
games beforehand that won’t improve its own standing any.
***And it’s going to be tough for UConn to move up much
further, say, beyond #10, unless it defeats West Virginia on
11/24.
Ahem…ahem……..guess who is the hottest college football
forecaster in the country? Moi! I am now 7-0 my last two
weeks, with one ‘push’. 15-8 overall. To wit:
I had UConn, giving 2 ½ to Rutgers…win, 38-19
I had Oregon, giving 7 to Arizona State…win, 35-23
I had Troy and 16 ½ vs. Georgia…win, 34-44…I covered on a
last-second TD…thank you, Troy, a winner for me three weeks
in a row.
And I had a push on Michigan, giving 4 to Michigan State, with
the Wolverines prevailing, late, 28-24.
So I upped my winnings to $7.6 million the past two Saturdays.
Stay tuned for more “Picks to Click”…if you keep it where it is.
Stuff
–I told you the baseball off-season was going to be exciting,
especially if you’re in the New York area. For some of us it’s
more entertaining than the regular season.
As in look at Alex Rodriguez. The story is he was demanding
the Yankees present a contract offer for $350 million. $350
million! The Yankees, in turn, were going to present him $30
million a season for five years, on top of the three years
remaining that he just opted out of, that would have paid A-Rod
$81 million. Thus, the Yankees were going to pay him $230
million over eight years.
But as reported by Buster Olney of ESPN.com, “team executives
were told that in order to arrange a meeting with Rodriguez, they
would have to be prepared to make an extension offer that would
take the third baseman’s deal up to a total value of $350 million.”
However, the plot is thickening quickly, as in it’s very possible
agent Scott Boras’ bluff will backfire in a big way. No one is
banging on his door asking to pay A-Rod $30 million per for any
extended period thus far.
Murray Chass / New York Times
“In fact, Boras’ words and deeds had other agents saying they
wouldn’t mind if the owners engaged in collusion against
Rodriguez, which is a pretty severe reaction from people whose
clients were victims of the owners’ collusion in the mid-1980s.”
What is truly pissing off a ton of folks associated with the game
was Boras’ timing of his announcement that his client was opting
out…before Game 4 of the World Series was even over.
Mike Vaccaro / New York Post
“Remember the night last summer when Pedro Martinez walked
back to the pitcher’s mound at Fenway Park and the
overwhelming majority of Red Sox fans stood and applauded and
saluted him? Remember the Sunday afternoon in 1977 when
Tom Seaver returned to Shea Stadium as a Met, and they almost
toppled the ballpark’s foundation welcoming him home?
Remember the strands of “Ed-die…Ed-die” that still lurk in the
rafters at the Garden, after Eddie Giacomin returned in a Red
Wings jersey to play the Rangers?
“OK…Now think about what it will look like, and sound like,
and feel like next April or May or June if Alex Rodriguez steps
to home plate for the first time wearing the uniform of the
Angels or Red Sox or White Sox or Mets. Think about what it
will look like and sound like and feel like if that homecoming
comes next July, with A-Rod wearing a Dodgers uniform, or a
Cubs uniform, and it’s in the All-Star Game. That would be just
like those other New York homecomings.
“Only exactly the opposite.
“The fact is there may never be an uglier welcome awaiting an
athlete than the one that’s in store for Alex Rodriguez whenever
it happens. New York sports fans don’t like it when athletes
don’t embrace them (even if it takes a while for the fans to
extend the bear-hug arms too, as was the case here). But they
REALLY don’t like being scorned. Put the two together, and
factor everything else that’s been in play with A-Rod from the
moment his acquisitions was announced on Valentine’s Day
2004…
“It’s going to be right up there with the way Denis Potvin was
greeted at Madison Square Garden every time he stepped on the
ice there after Feb. 25, 1979, the night Potvin broke Ulf
Nilsson’s ankle. That obscene Potvin chant that still survives at
the Garden is one of the great New York traditions of all time,
given that we’ll soon be sneaking up on 29 years since the
incident in question…and 20 years since Potvin’s retirement.
And yet, given the nature of the character and the betrayal
involved, would it surprise anyone if a similar chant involving A-
Rod won’t still be working its way around the New Yankee
Stadium when it celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2034?
“It’s going to be right up there with the way John Rocker was
greeted at Shea Stadium on the night of June 29, 2000, when he
sprinted in from the left-field bullpen to a thick torrent of anger
and bile from 46,998 people who still remembered the interesting
things Rocker had said about New York and its residents in a
magazine article six months earlier.”
Oh, baby…I can’t wait. I told Willie Wilson the other day that
the last time I stepped in Yankee Stadium was all the way back
in 1981, and I was there simply to see him. But I may have to
pay good money to see A-Rod that first game back next season.
Then again, Mets fans like Johnny Mac, Phil W. and I are
deathly afraid the Mets will out of nowhere obtain the jerk. Note
to GM Omar Minaya….we don’t want him! Honestly, we’re all
having nightmares. In my case, it rivals those I used to have of
North Korean bottle rockets plowing into the U.S.
–Boy, has baseball changed. For example, Willie Wilson, who
played primarily in the 70s and 80s, earned $2 million at his peak
(just one season) with most of his salaries in the $800,000 to
$1,000,000 range. Good ballplayers were just beginning to be
paid good money, but nothing outrageous like today. As in the
Yankees just exercised their option on outfielder Bobby Abreu
for $16 million. Yes, Abreu scored 123 and drove in 101, while
hitting .283, but $16 million?! Yet there are some who probably
think this is a bargain.
–And what’s the difference between A-Rod and fellow superstar
Tim Duncan? It’s pretty easy. The other day Duncan signed for
a contract extension with the Spurs for another two years, taking
him to 2011-2012. While the figures are relative, understand that
Duncan settled for $20 million per year, or $11 million under the
maximum allowed under the NBA’s salary structure. The classy
Duncan wanted to give his team some cap room to use on free
agents after 2009-10. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, “Just a
very good example of the way his brain works and what his
priorities are.”
Go Deacs!! How lucky were we to have had Duncan on our
campus for four years? He’ll be paying dividends in terms of
Wake Forest’s image for years and years to come, just like
Arnold Palmer has….or David Robinson at Navy, in some
respects. Robinson should be President of the United States, by
the way…but now I’m rambling.
–The biggest phony on the planet is Fake Rev. Al Sharpton.
Sharpton was set to boycott the New York Knicks’ home opener,
Sunday, but opted to drop it by declaring coach Isiah Thomas
was not guilty of saying it’s OK for black men to call black
women “bitches.”
As reported by Tatiana Deligiannakis and Todd Venezia of the
New York Post:
“Sharpton said (Sat.) that a taped deposition in which Thomas
appeared to have made the comment was heavily edited.
“ ‘He told me that what was on the tape was not all that was said,
and that he only wanted a fair hearing,’ Sharpton said at his
Harlem headquarters, standing by Thomas.
“The reverend said that after viewing the tape Friday night, he
was sure Thomas ‘doesn’t agree with anyone calling anyone a
‘B.’’”
Well in case you don’t remember, just a few weeks ago a jury
awarded Anucha Browne Sanders $11.6 million in her sexual
harassment case against Thomas and Madison Square Garden.
–What have I been saying for months now? From the London
Times.
“India should recruit a top police officer and retired soldiers to its
tiger protection agency in an attempt to strengthen efforts to save
the animal’s rapidly dwindling population, conservationists
said.”
Put together a world force, under the UN flag, to protect all the
major endangered species in Africa and India. I’d kick in decent
money for such an army.
[I’ll comment on “60 Minutes” elephant piece in my next “Week
in Review.”]
–Or maybe Britney could contribute some of her largess. I don’t
know about you, but I always had the impression her finances
were increasingly shaky, though I haven’t been reading any
tabloids recently.
Well, fret not…Britney is financially secure it would seem. As
in she still has about $100 million to her name and according to
court documents that have emerged in her child custody case, she
has $33 million earning interest in six accounts, plus owns timber
land in Louisiana worth $6 million, and all manner of other
investments. [In all seriousness, I know from my own work that
some of Louisiana’s properties contain hidden riches in natural
gas…which reminds me, I need to research a company in this
area that I’ve looked at before.]
Anyway, the same court papers reveal that Britney is spending
$353,000 a month, including $102,000 per month for partying
(filed under “entertainment, gifts and vacations”). That’s really
only $3,400 a day. I could spend that much easily…and have a
darn good time doing it. Of course I’d probably be dead by Day
23.
–Here’s a guy not partying much these days…even though his
kids do…Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. Reid insisted he
would not resign, a day after a judge sentenced his two sons to
prison and likened Reid’s home to a “drug emporium.”
From the AP:
“Yesterday, prosecutors charged 24-year-old Garrett Reid with
five additional drug counts related to 89 pills he had smuggled
into prison. His cellmate said he saw Reid remove the pills from
his rectum and that Reid offered him some of the pills.”
I probably should have warned you about this last passage ahead
of time, but I’m assuming the pills were properly cleaned and
disinfected before Garrett made the offer.
Meanwhile, police searched the Reid home and they found all
manner of prescriptions, two syringes and eight needles in his
room. 22-year-old brother Britt was sentenced last Thursday to
eight to 23 months in jail for pointing a gun at another driver last
January. Garrett had previously been sentenced.
I wonder what kind of dinner table conversations this family
used to have? Actually, I really don’t want to know. Every
family has its issues, after all.
–They passed out the Dog and Cat of the Year awards the other
day, as issued by the American Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.
Debbie Parkhurst’s husband, Kevin, was at his job at a
Wilmington, Del., chemical firm when she took a midday break
from making jewelry and bit into an apple.
“Normally I peel them, but I read in Good Housekeeping
magazine that the skin has all the nutrients, so I ate the skin, and
that’s what caused me to choke,” she recalled.
“I couldn’t breathe and I was in a panic when Toby (a 2 ½-year-
old golden retriever) jumped on me. He never does that, but he
did and saved my life” as the morsel eventually popped out of
her throat.
Can’t you just picture this? Toby, attentively just sitting there,
observing, like all dogs do, and then thinking, “Uh oh…this isn’t
normal.”
As for the cat, the Keesling family didn’t realize they had a
malfunctioning gas-driven pump that was spreading carbon
dioxide through the house. By the time Winnie the cat sprang
into rescue mode, their 14-year-old son was already unconscious.
“Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me with a kind of
angry meow,” Cathy Keesling said. “When I woke up, I felt like
a T-bar had hit me across the head.”
State police later said the family was only minutes from death,
judging by the amount of gas in the house.
I’m thinking, though, the cat just wanted to be let out, sensing the
danger. I can’t imagine Winnie really cared about anyone but
herself, know what I’m sayin’? It’s a cat, after all.
–Here’s a dumb story. Some jerk in Las Vegas, Marshall Grier,
has already committed his 14-year-old son, Maiscei (nice
freakin’ name), to play basketball at Rutgers. The kid is a
freshman at Arbor View High School in Vegas, and his father
once played at Rider, where he played for current Rutgers’ coach
Fred Hill. Oh brother. Yet there are tens of thousands of parents
like this these days.
–We note the passing of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the
commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress
that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945.
Tibbets was 92.
Tibbets was a highly successful bomber pilot in World War II
when in September 1944 he was tabbed to put together a team of
the best pilots, navigators, bombardiers and support personnel
and mold them into a unit that would deliver the bomb, in what
was the most closely held secret of the war. Unbelievably, the
unit eventually comprised 1,800 men who trained amid
extraordinary security at Wendover Field in Utah.
Then in the summer of 1945, Tibbets oversaw his unit’s transfer
for training on Tinian, in the Northern Marianas. On July 16, an
atomic bomb was successfully tested in New Mexico.
The Enola Gay had a crew of 12 and carried out its mission
flawlessly.
Richard Goldstein / New York Times
“At 8:15 a.m., local time, the bomb known to its creators as
Little Boy dropped free at an altitude of 31,000 feet. Forty-three
seconds later, at 1,890 feet above ground zero, it exploded in a
nuclear inferno that left tens of thousands dead and dying and
turned much of Hiroshima, a city of some 250,000 at the time,
into a scorched ruin.”
As Colonel Tibbets later described in his memoir, “The Tibbets
Story”:
“The giant purple mushroom, which the tail-gunner had
described, had already risen to a height of 45,000 feet, 3 miles
above our own altitude, and was still boiling upward like
something terribly alive.”
Of course as the years went by, many questioned whether
Hiroshima, and three days later, Nagasaki, were warranted.
Tibbets, who remained in the military for about 20 years never
wavered in his defense. In 1995 he said at a reunion:
“I wanted to do everything that I could to subside Japan. I
wanted to kill the bastards. That was the attitude of the United
States in those years….I have been convinced that we saved
more lives than we took….It would have been morally wrong if
we’d have had that weapon and not used it and let a million more
people die.”
I firmly still believe that all the evidence uncovered since leads
to Gen. Tibbets’ conclusion as well.
–And John Woodruff died, age 92. Woodruff was the last
survivor of the 12 American men who won track and field
medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Frank Litsky / New York Times
“Hitler, the German chancellor, had opened the Games confident
they would showcase the prowess of German athletes and prove
his theories of Aryan racial superiority. He was said to be deeply
embarrassed when Jesse Owens, Woodruff and three other black
athletes came away with eight gold medals….
“Woodruff’s moment in the 800 final came after he had made a
freshman mistake: as other runners began to box him in on the
inside, he slowed and briefly stopped. He was a 21-year-old
freshman from the University of Pittsburgh [Yeah, Pitt… sock it
to ‘em!] with no international experience and…after 300 meters,
Woodruff recalled, he found himself trapped.
“ ‘I had to do something,’ he told the New York Times in 2006.
‘I didn’t panic. I just figured if I had only one opportunity to
win, this was it. I’ve heard people say that I slowed down or
almost stopped. I didn’t almost stop. I stopped, and everyone
else ran around me.’
“That left Woodruff in last place, but also with racing room.
With an explosion of sprinting power and a 9-foot stride – he
stood 6 feet 3 ¼ inches – he overtook the others in the next 100
yards. Edwards then regained the lead, but Woodruff passed him
on the last turn, held off (European champion Mario) Lanzi by 2
meters and won in 1 minutes 52.9 seconds.”
–Very sad U.S. Olympic Marathon trial in New York as Ryan
Shay, a real threat to make the team, collapsed and died 5 ½
miles into the race on Saturday. He was a former 10,000-meter
NCAA champion at Notre Dame. Shay was said to have had an
enlarged heart but had been given his physician’s permission to
continue running at this high level.
[Ryan Hall won the race and will represent the U.S. in Beijing
along with Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell. But a big story
was the failure of Meb Keflezighi to qualify as he succumbed to
cramps and finished 8th. And thus begins the whole Olympic
qualification process, which in terms of human interest stories is
as good as it gets…far better than the actual Games in many
respects.]
–A-Rod isn’t the only phony these days. Five-time tennis Grand
Slam champion Martina Hingis wants us to believe she is
innocent, even though both her A and B samples from
Wimbledon revealed she had tested positive for cocaine. So
Hingis announced she was retiring rather than fight the charge,
which she said in a statement was “so horrendous, so monstrous,
that I have decided to confront it head-on by talking to the press.”
Hingis says she found out in mid-September of the test result and
was “shocked.”
Sounds guilty to me. Move on, Martina, and leave us alone.
–Sports Illustrated’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”:
“A hippopotamus that had escaped from a wildlife park was
found in a Chargers assistant coach’s swimming pool.”
Now how many of you would have loved to see the reaction on
his face! Or his wife’s! [Or his mistresses…I really don’t know
who I’m dealing with here.]
–And SI had this, from Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder,
before the team’s recent game in London vs. the Giants.
“I couldn’t find London on a map if they didn’t have the names
of the countries…I don’t know what nothing is. I know Italy
looks like a boot….I know London Fletcher…He’s black, so I’m
sure he’s not from London. I’m sure that’s a coincidental name.”
My goodness…Houston, we have us an idiot. And you scoff
when I rate humans around 90th on the all-species list. I mean I
can name forty or fifty smarter than this guy. [Crowder went to
Florida, incidentally. I sure as hell hope they didn’t award him a
diploma. Were this the case, I would hope Gator alums had the
sense to withhold their donations.]
[Washoe the Chimp, age 42, just died. Washoe supposedly
mastered sign language, though there was some controversy over
this. Nonetheless, Washoe most surely knew the difference
between London and, say, Great Britain.]
–Jimmie Johnson won his third straight race and grabbed the
Nextel Cup chase lead over teammate Jeff Gordon with just two
races to go.
–Wasn’t that a great “Nature” last night on the wolves of
Yellowstone? And what a powerful ending to “Tell Me You
Love Me.” [HBO]
Top 3 songs 11/3/79: #1 “Pop Muzik” (M) #2 “Heartache
Tonight” (Eagles) #3 “Dim All The Lights” (Donna Summer)…
and…#4 “Rise” (Herb Alpert…geezuz, this was 18 years ago!)
#5 “Still” (Commodores) #6 “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
(Michael Jackson) #7 “Babe” (Styx) #8 “Tusk” (Fleetwood
Mac…loved the old Fleetwood Mac, couldn’t stand the later
version) #9 “You Decorated My Life” (Kenny Rogers) #10 “No
More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” (Barbra Streisand/Donna
Summer)
*Meat Loaf walked off a stage in Britain the other night in the
middle of his appearance, saying “I can no longer continue. This
is the last show I may ever do in my life.” And with that he was
gone, right after singing the opening bars of “Paradise by the
Dashboard Light.”
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) Iowa State’s Troy Davis
starred from 1995-96 and had single-game efforts of 291, 302,
and 378. 2) John Riggins was the feature back at Kansas, 1968-
70, averaging 5.13 per carry. 3) Bobby Douglas quarterbacked
Kansas from 1966-68 before heading to the NFL. He was
actually a far more effective runner in the NFL than he was in
college. 4) Kansas State’s all-time passing leader with 6,208
yards is Lynn Dickey, 1968-70, who later had some big years in
the NFL.
*NCAA Tidbit: And then there was Gale Sayers. Playing at
Kansas from 1962-64, Sayers had 1,125 yards rushing his
sophomore year on just 158 carries, a stupendous 7.12 average.
For his three years there (remember, freshmen weren’t eligible
then), Sayers averaged 6.49 per carry. I can’t find his return
stats, but he actually wasn’t a big receiver for the Jayhawks.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday.
